Police described a Minnesota woman’s disappearance as “involuntary” and “suspicious” as the search stretched into its fifth day on Wednesday.
Madeline “Maddie” Kingsbury, 26, was last seen alive at her home in Winona on March 31. She was reported missing that day after she didn’t show up for work or pick up her children from daycare.
No suspects have been detained, as police in Winona, about 95 miles southeast of the Twin Cities, are still treating the investigation as a missing persons case.
“We are doing everything we can to bring Maddie home,” Winona Police Chief Tom Williams said Wednesday at a press conference alongside Kingsbury’s family. He said there was no threat to the general public.
At 8 a.m. on March 31, Kingsbury left home alongside the father of her children to drop their 5-year-old daughter and 2-year-old son off at daycare. The couple returned home together at 8:15 a.m., police said.
But Kingsbury never made it to work that morning. Her partner told police that he left home at 10 a.m. in their dark blue 2014 Chrysler minivan and returned home to find her gone.
Police said there was no evidence that Kingsbury left the home on foot or in another vehicle. Her cellphone, wallet, ID and the jacket she’d been wearing that morning were all found inside the couple’s home in Winona.
The minivan was spotted traveling south in Winona County after 10 a.m. on County Road 12 and Minnesota State Highway 43, police said. The van was also spotted farther south, in Fillmore County, also traveling down Highway 43. It was then seen making a return journey, and police estimated it was returned to Kingsbury’s driveway around 1:30 p.m.
Cops found and searched the van in the driveway, but there has been no sign of Kingsbury.